Media Agencies

How to sell media to an agency the right (and wrong) way

Adam Shlachter is the managing director for digital in the U.S. for MEC. In his role, Adam meets with hundreds of sellers each year. We asked him about the best (and worst) way to work with an agency.

The Makegood: Adam, what are the qualities of a good media seller?

I think there are three key qualities to a good seller:

1) They do their homework and don’t make you do it for them
2) They’re good, active listeners which is important because they won’t know everything that makes your brand tick
3) They are students of the industry, meaning they are always on top of the trends, how it may affect their offer or our business.

You can’t know everything all the time, but I believe these are key elements, in the right combination, that produce good sellers that are curious, creative and solution oriented.

The Makegood: On the flip side, we’ve all been out with the aggressive seller who is still pitching us hard late into the night. What are some of the other seller no-no’s?

There are many things that we see from all levels of folks, junior and seasoned such as:

Over and/or under communication

Lack of follow through after meetings or deals

Not knowing the audience

Pitching too hard

Being uninformed or unprepared for a meeting or discussion

Being too demanding of our time in and out of the office: social media stalking (via FB, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)

Name dropping inappropriately (read: know your audience).

These are just some of the themes I’ve run into, time and again. Sometimes they’re just one-offs, but often we see patterns and habits, and unfortunately not everyone in this business gets the direct and honest feedback they need to improve upon.